Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • November–December 2022
  • Article
  • Marketing Science

The Value of Descriptive Analytics: Evidence from Online Retailers

By: Ron Berman and Ayelet Israeli
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:23
ShareBar

Abstract

Does the adoption of descriptive analytics impact online retailer performance, and if so, how? We use the synthetic difference-in-differences method to analyze the staggered adoption of a retail analytics dashboard by more than 1,500 e-commerce websites, and we find an increase of 4%–10% in average weekly revenues post-adoption. We demonstrate that only retailers that adopt and use the dashboard reap these benefits. The increase in revenue is not explained by price changes or advertising optimization. Instead, it is consistent with the addition of CRM, personalization, and prospecting technologies to retailer websites.
The adoption and usage of descriptive analytics also increases the diversity of products sold, the number of transactions, the numbers of website visitors and unique customers, and the revenue from repeat customers. In contrast, there is no change in basket size. These findings are consistent with a complementary effect of descriptive analytics that serve as a monitoring device that helps retailers control additional martech tools and amplify their value. Without using the descriptive dashboard, retailers are unable to reap the benefits associated with these technologies.

Keywords

Descriptive Analytics; Big Data; Synthetic Control; E-commerce; Online Retail; Difference-in-differences; Martech; Internet and the Web; Analytics and Data Science; Performance; Marketing; Retail Industry

Citation

Berman, Ron, and Ayelet Israeli. "The Value of Descriptive Analytics: Evidence from Online Retailers." Marketing Science 41, no. 6 (November–December 2022): 1074–1096.
  • SSRN
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Register to Read

About The Author

Ayelet Israeli

Marketing
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • March 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Unintended Consequences of Algorithmic Personalization

    By: Ayelet Israeli and Eva Ascarza
    • 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Dynamic Personalization with Multiple Customer Signals: Multi-Response State Representation in Reinforcement Learning

    By: Liangzong Ma, Ta-Wei Huang, Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli
    • October 2024
    • Journal of Marketing Research (JMR)

    Canary Categories

    By: Eric Anderson, Chaoqun Chen, Ayelet Israeli and Duncan Simester
More from the Authors
  • Unintended Consequences of Algorithmic Personalization By: Ayelet Israeli and Eva Ascarza
  • Dynamic Personalization with Multiple Customer Signals: Multi-Response State Representation in Reinforcement Learning By: Liangzong Ma, Ta-Wei Huang, Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli
  • Canary Categories By: Eric Anderson, Chaoqun Chen, Ayelet Israeli and Duncan Simester
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.